After missing out by centimetres at the Tour of Basque Country, today was Pello Bilbao‘s day, who took a superb win on Stage 4 (Naturns – Pieve di Bono 168.6km) at the Tour of the Alps. More impressively, it was the queen stage, being the most demanding and prestigious stage of the race.
The stage had riders taking on challenging climbs, Passo Castrin, Passo Campo Carlo Magno and Boniprati, but it was the final descent, where the Basque rider bridged the gap to the leaders, Simon Yates (Bike Exchange) and Alexandre Vlasov (Astana). It then came down to a sprint finish, where Bilbao proved to be the fastest in Pieve di Bono, beating Vlasov (2nd) and Yates (3rd) to the line.
Bilbao was delighted with the stage win: “It was such a perfect day. I came here at the Tour of the Alps with a stage victory in mind, and I tried from the first day to take it. Maybe today was the stage that suits me the most.
We knew that the decisive moment was the last climb but especially the following descent. We studied it with our Sports Director Pellizotti, outlining the points where I could take some risks and those where I have to be very careful.
Today was a special day as it’s the death anniversary of my late teammate Michele Scarponi and I wanted to do my best to take this victory to dedicate to him. As I already did last time, I won at Tour of the Alps 3 years ago.”
Besides the stage win, Pello Bilbao also moved up to second place overall, at 58″ to the leader Yates:
“To upset the overall tomorrow, I think it will be difficult to do something. I think that more than attacking, we will defend this podium place, but if possible, we will try again to take the stage win”.
Today’s victory results from excellent teamwork, with Hermann Pernsteiner working in the day’s breakaway and the other teammates protecting Pello. But also it comes thanks to perfect race strategies as Team Bahrain Victorious Sports Director Franco Pellizotti pointed out:
“I’m very happy as we studied it in the details and the victory arrived right in that way we were thinking. Therefore, you can be even more satisfied. The guys were perfect today. They weren’t in the first break as it didn’t include dangerous riders for the GC. Then they worked to put Hermann Pernsteiner in the proper break, and the Austrian’s job was amazing. His group was caught back at the foot of the last climb. Pello climbed with his pace as we knew that we had the descent to our favour, and we just had to calculate to keep the gap under control. We also studied the finish to be ready to face a sprint of a restricted group of riders.
Tomorrow’s stage probably can’t upset the overall, seeing that Yates has a strong team, and he proved to be in good shape. But we don’t want to settle for the results we have achieved so far. The stage suits Bilbao as well; therefore, we want to be protagonists again”.
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